Unity, Peace and Nonviolence

A popular Christmas song says, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” If each person lived up to this valuable advice and became peaceful himself or herself, then the cumulative effects of everyone being peaceful would be peace on earth.

On August 21 we honored the memory of a great saint, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, who left this world on that day in 1974. He lived a life of peace and nonviolence and inspired others to do the same. Honored as the father of the Human Unity Conference, which began in 1974, his whole life was a song of peace and a symphony of unity. From his very childhood he understood the highest human values. He realized that human beings have a responsibility to love and respect others, to be of service to others, and to love all. His famous quote stems from that belief: “Be good, do good, be one.”

We can apply some incidents from his noble life to our own to make his dream of unity and peace a reality in our own lifetimes.

First, he learned from a young age how important peace and unity are. When his parents had developed animosities with others, his father told young Kirpal, “Pal (his nickname), our friends will be your friends, and our enemies will be your enemies.” The child was already conscious and aware. His mature and wise response shocked his father. He explained to his father that one of the reasons that some people do not get along with each other is due to misunderstandings.

The young lad said, “Life is too short and I have not come to have hatreds. I have come to love all.”

Therefore, from a young age, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji recognized that we should guard against developing hatreds with others. Rather, we should try to understand others and develop love and friendship. One could see how he put this into practice in his own life when he became the founder-president of the World Fellowship of Religions and the father of the Human Unity Conference. His own spiritual mission was built on the foundation of unity, love, nonviolence, and respect for people of all walks of life.

Sant Kirpal Singh Ji was a strong proponent of nonviolence. We know that India achieved independence through the principle of nonviolence propounded by Mahatma Gandhi. Sant Kirpal Singh Ji’s respect for life extended beyond human beings to plants and animals. As a child, he already had an innate sense that eating meat was destructive to lower forms of life. Even though his parents were not vegetarian and insisted that he eat meat, young Kirpal Singh refused to eat meat. He was happy with plant-based foods.

One day his father asked him, “Pal, why don’t you take meat? It will do you good.” Young Kirpal Singh told him, “It is very well, Father, but is not meat dead flesh, and would you have me make a graveyard out of my body?” The father gave in and let the child have his own way to be a vegetarian. He already realized that meat involved taking the life of other creatures of God. He did not want to lead a life that involved death and destruction of animals.

As he continued in his work, the result was that Sant Kirpal Singh Ji encouraged tens of thousands to take up the vegetarian way of life, showing that we could get our nutritional needs met through plant-based foods.

Unity was another cornerstone of Sant Kirpal Singh Ji’s life. He was always looking for ways to bring people together in love and harmony. There were many examples from his life which showed how he loved others, even those that most people would shun. One of the earliest examples was how he tended the sick during the great influenza epidemic of the early twentieth century. Most people would shun the sick fearing that they would catch the disease and die. This was during a time in which there were no antibiotics and medicine for the epidemic. Sant Kirpal Singh Ji, seeing no difference between a stranger and his own family, took upon himself the brave work of caring for those stricken by the disease.

Another time, bubonic plague broke out in India. People believed that if they touched anybody with the plague they too would catch the disease and die. Thus, people would leave their dead and dying on the roadside. People were afraid to touch their own relatives. However, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji organized a service team and personally carried the dead to the cremation grounds so they could have a proper burial. This was an example of how he treated others as if members of his own family, doing for a stranger what he would do for his own flesh and blood.

In remembering this great saint, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, these incidents serve as inspiration to apply the principles of unity and nonviolence in the hopes of bringing peace to our own lives, and also to bring peace on Earth.